Chasing Madoff is mostly that sort of movie, the kind you make when all you've seen is other movies and television shows about crime, when you want someone to know what you can do with a juicy story that takes some effort to ruin.

Chasing Madoff is as much a journalistic exposé of Madoff as it is a love letter to Markopolos, shot in the style of "Natural Born Killers" by a director terrified of boring his audience. In Proserman, the documentary genre finds its own Michael Bay.

His sorry tale is worth re-telling, if only to piece together the connective tissue between government, big business and, to a lesser degree, the media institutions that propped up what most insiders knew or suspected was a massive fraud for years before Madoff got his comeuppance.

The movie is anything but flawless. There are flourishes that seem plucked from Errol Morris' work but aren't as good, and some re-creations of past events are hokey. It's the film's content that packs a punch.

The unintended take-away is that you can grasp why the Securities and Exchange Commission - terribly negligent though it was in investigating Madoff - might dismiss the claims of someone so theatrically odd.

Chasing Madoff is a useful reminder that all is far from well with our financial institutions, which continue to lobby for less regulation rather than more. But the human element of the film is so weirdly distracting it often deflects from its primary target.

Director Jeff Prosserman's retelling borders on reprehensible, as he attempts to heighten an already powerful tale with a parade of needless bells and whistles, from flashy camera work to melodramatic reenactments. What a shame, because the story is truly astonishing.

A must-see documentary, mind-blowing by it's content, which is sadly hurt by a messy construction and an over-the-top melodramatic tone. TheA must-see documentary, mind-blowing by it's content, which is sadly hurt by a messy construction and an over-the-top melodramatic tone. The story being told was already powerful enough to spare some intense close-ups or reenactments. The Filmmaker's choice to solely focus on the "hunters team" and thus telling so little about Madoff himself was a brave one that turns out to pay off, as it helps create this mystical and unreal status Madoff did enjoy during the decade preceding his fall.…Full Review »

This movie made no sense. Jeff Prosserman's misunderstanding of the story, characters and the event is perplexing. The cheesy, overdone,This movie made no sense. Jeff Prosserman's misunderstanding of the story, characters and the event is perplexing. The cheesy, overdone, superfluous effects paired with the knock-off Phillip Glass score (the film's only savior) makes this noir documentary a bad comedy. It's a shame too, the idea is a good one. The director: not such a good one.…Full Review »